I Didn't Miss You, Rick, or Hogwarts, Either
by LoveStoryMermaid
Summary: A school full of teenage witches, vampires and werewolves all jammed together. What could go wrong? Rick's in over his head when the students decide to have a paintball fight-with vervain and wolfsbane. Caroline, Bonnie and Jeremy are all away. That leaves Damon to call for help. For this story, Damon's still a vampire. Elena's still in the coffin. Stefan as in TVD finale.
1. Help

I Didn't Miss You, Rick, or Hogwarts, Either

Shrieks pierced the hallway and greeted Alaric as he straggled into work, still half asleep and holding his coffee mug. It was too early for this. Then, a student collapsed to the floor a few feet in front of him, followed by one about a hundred feet across from them. _What the hell?!_ There were still students running every which way.

"Ok, everybody freeze!" Alaric yelled.

The students took one second to look at him, all going wide eyed only to proceed to scatter in opposite directions in the next second. Alaric took a deep breath and another sip of his coffee, then knelt down beside the two unconscious students. One of them was the werewolf, Rafael. The other was a vampire, Denise. That was a good sign. _Not_. Well, they both were at least breathing and had a pulse. That was a start. That's when Alaric noticed the dart in the Rafael's neck. With a furious look of disbelief, he looked over the vampire student that had dropped. A poorer shot, but one that had made contact all the same; sure enough, there was a dart lodged in their left lower leg.

Alaric sighed. He couldn't carry them both to the infirmary and he didn't want to leave one of them unattended. He pulled out his cell to call the infirmary to meet him, taking another sip of his coffee while he waited for someone to answer. No one did. Alaric shook his head and called back. It was nothing to worry about, sometimes they were busy. Still, no one answered. Since when did that happen?

Alaric's cell rang and he immediately breathed a sigh of relief. The infirmary had just been busy after all. Then, he recognized the number and groaned before answering. "Matt? _Please_ tell me this a social call?"

"Afraid not, Rick."

Rick groaned. "I didn't think so. Okay, but it make it quick. I'm trying to deal with something at the school right now."

"I bet." Matt replied, annoyed. "I've got two bodies with neck wounds and a witness in custody saying they saw one of your students attacking them last night."

"What?!" Rick all but yelled. . . .

"I told you once, Rick. I respect what you're doing for Stefan's memory and trying to give these guys a place to go, but if this continues to get out of hand…"

There were more shrieks in the distance along with a distant thud and crash of something breaking. "Okay!" Rick breathed out. "Matt. I gotta go. I'll handle this. Send your witness over and I'll make sure it doesn't happen again."

"Make sure it doesn't. He'll be there after work, in two hours."

"Wait, two ho-" Alaric panicked, but Matt had already hung up.

"HOLD IT!" Alaric yelled at a student running by who froze in alarm at his tone. Alaric watched as she started to think about running off. "Run and you're in detention for two months," he threatened quieter. He recognized her. Abby was a 15-year-old witch, normally on the quiet side and not much to be causing trouble. Abby turned slowly around to meet his gaze with the expression of a child who was terrified they'd just been caught.

"Abby," Rick probed gently, "Do you know what's going on?"

Abby opened her mouth without saying anything, shrugging into herself.

"Abby." Rick insisted.

"Ok! I heard the wolves and vampires started a paintball fight using wolfsbane and vervain darts. Some of the witches thought they'd use the opportunity to make alliances and get back at the vampires. The others are holed up hiding somewhere. I thought I'd just try and stay out of it all either way, but..."

"They did _what_?!" Alaric groaned. "Okay, Abby. I could really use your help for minute. Can you keep an eye on Rafael while I get Denise into my office? It'll only take a minute. Then, I want you to run to your room and stay there. Can you do that for me?"

Abby nodded. "Thank you," Alaric replied, putting a hand on her shoulder as he tried to reassure both her and himself. He picked up the unresponsive Denise in a child's carry and plopped her into one of his office chairs. That's when he noticed his metal cabinet that held all his hunting equipment was wide open. The lock had been broken off and not only were the vervain and wolfsbane darts gone, but so were the grenades and one magazine of wooden bullets that belonged to the student who would be expelled when Alaric caught him with it. Alaric didn't have a spare lock at the moment, but wasn't about to leave the cabinet completely unprotected. He pulled out a zip tie and dipped it in vials of both vervain and wolfsbane that had been in his bag before tying it through the cabinet.

Alaric downed the rest of his coffee, not caring that it scalded his throat, before going back out to Abby. "Thank you, Abby. I've got it from here. Get out of here and be careful." She was gone in the next second and he knelt down to haul Rafael over his shoulder in a fireman's carry down to the closest classroom. He figured it was best to keep the species separated. Huffing by the time he got there, he plopped Rafael onto the floor. "_I'm getting too old for this_," Rick thought. He took a minute to think, continuing to hear screams reverberate through the halls. He didn't think it would work, but it was worth a shot. He pulled out one of the school wide PA systems that resided in the infirmary. "ANY STUDENT FOUND IN POSSESSION OF ANY DART GUN, VERVAIN OR WOLSFBANE WILL BE IN DETENTION FOR THE REST OF THE SEMESTER. ANY STUDENT FOUND IN POSESSION OF A GUN OR WOODEN BULLETS WILL BE EXPELLED! ANY STUDENT WITH ANY INFORMATION OR WILLING TO HELP CAN COME SEE PROFESSOR SALTZMAN IN HIS OFFICE AND WILL BE GRANTED AN OPPORTUNITY FOR EXTRA CREDIT."

Rick shook his head. He didn't like leaving Rafael alone, but it was better than the hallway, his office clearly had to be a priority and he didn't see any other options. If his students insisted on playing their version of the damn Hunger Games, maybe they'd pick up on an idea for recoup spots.

It had been deceptively quiet for the walk back to Rick's office, but he really didn't think that was going to last. The problem was, he didn't know how else to stop it. At least, not on his own. Not to mention the problem in town Matt had informed him of. He dreaded admitting defeat, but his pride would not let him call and ruin Caroline's girls' trip. That left him with one option to dial.

"Well, if it isn't the oh wise sensai of the supernatural. What can I do for you, Rick?"

"Damon." Rick greeted and then admitted, "I need your help."

"My help? Why whatever's the matter?"

"Damon, it's not funny!" Rick rebuked upon hearing the I-told-you-so laughter on the other end of the line. He proceeded to explain what had happened.

"No. No, Rick, it's not. You're telling me you want me to walk into a school flying with vervain darts and werewolves trying to attack vampires? Now, why does that sound like something I'd want to do?"

"Damon, please," Alaric begged.

"Eh, I just wanted to hear you beg a bit," Damon confessed. "Although, where's Caroline in this? Oh! Don't tell me they already got her."

"You're not funny and you should remember that Caroline is in South America with Bonnie. And Jeremy, for the record, is on another hunt. So, lucky me, you're what I've got."

"Leave it to Stefan to have wanted to turn our house back into Hogwarts. I did say this was never going to work."

Rick sighed, "Well…face it, Damon. It kind of already was Hogwarts to begin with."

There was a pause on the line. "Fine. I'll be there. Tell me something. After your little announcement, has it gone quiet?"

"Yea, actually, I just don't trust it. And thought it wouldn't hurt having backup with the problem in town."

"You'd be even more of an idiot if you trusted it. You just told every student in that school the perfect spot to ambush any wannabe do-good-er and ensured that they get sneakier with their movements, likely to erupt in nighttime war when they think you'll be asleep."

"But…" Rick protested, horrifyingly realizing that Damon was right.

"Good to hear from you, too, buddy. See ya in a bit."

Rick took the temporary quiet of the retreat as an opportunity for recon. He walked the hallways, respectively pulling one unconscious student after another into one of the two designated classrooms, making sure they were all still breathing and otherwise uninjured. He was being reminded of just how many students he had taken on to realize that there were still a multitude of students unaccounted for, two in particular. He continued his search path in the direction of their room. When he finally, got there, he knocked. His nerves started to go into overdrive when there was no answer. He tried one more time, knocking on the door and this time announcing, "Lizzie? Josie? It's dad."

Josie slowly opened the door an inch before taking a sigh of relief that Rick matched. "Thank goodness you're alright."

He saw Josie look around to make sure it was just him before she opened the door all the way and hugged him, Lizzie joining in. He pulled his girls close to him, wrapping his hand around their heads like when they were little, letting them know it was okay. He let go when he saw their room. They weren't alone. There were at least 20 other students, all witches from what he could see, that were curled up hiding around the room.

"Dad, I'm sorry. None of them ever did anything. It just got so hectic so fast and we decided we just wanted no part of it. So, we came up here together to hide."

"Okay. That's okay. I'm glad you're safe. I want you girls to stay up here, okay. Don't open the door for anyone except me. I'm going to take care of this, I promise."

He was a little worried about one of the wolves he found surrounded by a pool of blood and glass shards; but, the wounds seemed superficial now, he was breathing steadily and he should be able to heal himself. The shattered vase had likely resulted from the student passing out after being hit with a dart and resulted in the crash Rick had heard earlier. First, he took the student to the infirmary, just in case. Then, went back with a broom and mop to clean up the broken glass. As he was cleaning, he spotted MG scurrying down the hall.

"MG!" Alaric called and watched him wince as if he had been caught misbehaving. "Don't even think about it." Alaric warned before he could run off. "Do you know what's going on?"

Alaric watched MG lock his lips in consideration and proceed to shake his head no.

"You sure about that?"

MG nodded.

"You're not usually this quiet, MG."

"Sorry, Professor. It's been a weird day," he replied, his voice too high.

"Uh huh. Listen, Deputy Donovan is sending over a townsperson in an hour that saw a little too much. I need your help with him."

"Oh, sure, I can do that."

Rick was suspicious about the relief in MG's voice and the lack of hesitancy. He recalled what Damon had warned about having laid down an ultimatum. "Appreciate the help. Sure you're okay with coming by the office?"

Rick saw a flash of indecision in MG's eyes before he answered, "Yea, in an hour. Shouldn't be any problem then."

* * *

An hour later, Rick heard the front door bell ring and received Mr. Sandrin, one of the new Mystic Falls high school teachers. Mr. Sandrin took in the surroundings with the familiar awe of seeing the elusive Salvatore House.

"I must say, this is quite the place. Makes me wonder if my students wouldn't be more well behaved in a place like this rather than all jammed together in bleak hallways."

Rick let out a pained laugh. "Honestly, some days it feels like the opposite is true. Too much space for a bunch of teenagers to run loose. At least in town, they can't hide or get too far."

"Maybe you have a point, there," Mr. Sandrin acknowledged as Rick invited him into his office. "Still, it is impressive."

"That it is. Now, I hear you have more information on the attacks in town last night?" Rick invited and offered a bread and muffin tray.

Mr. Sandrin's earlier expression darkened, but he turned the tray down politely. "Yes. Forgive me if I don't have an appetite, though. It was horrible." He paused. "I must admit, I was a little confused as to why the sheriff wanted me to see you about it."

"Ah, well, I used to help him with investigations like this before I started the school," Rick answered, "It's not uncommon for him to ask witnesses to talk to me and see if anything rings any old connections." Rick paused briefly. "I hope you don't mind waiting just a few minutes. I have a promising student whose interested in running a story in our school newspaper about it, too. If you don't mind, of course."

"Not at all. The more people who know about this, the better. I tell you, something just isn't right about this. No animal I know can I do that."

Just then, there was a knock on the door. Rick announced, "That will be him. Come in, please."

MG walked in with his usual neutral, yet sense of importance expression he always had when Rick asked him for this favor.

Rick started. "Mr. Sandrin. This is Milton, my journalist student. Now, can you tell me what exactly you saw?"

"Yea. I mean, it sounds crazy. But, I swear, it's the truth."

"We're listening."

"Well, everyone's saying it's an animal attack. But, I was there and I don't buy that for a second. The body….the body was pale as a sheet with two clean puncture marks on both its neck and wrist. And…and…" he swallowed. "The neck was…barely on. What kind of animal has a bite like that and then just leaves the rest of the body untouched? And then, nobody else saw the attack happen. Just me. They didn't see…"

"What didn't they see?"

"Just some kid, but he must have been on something. His eyes were bulging with red veins and he ran off so fast. It was the kid that attacked the poor boy."

"What did the kid look like?"

"It was dark. Hard to say. But about 16, 5'8". I think he had longer red hair. A dark jacket with some sort of emblem on it. Otherwise dressed like any other teenager."

"Thank you, Mr. Sandrin. I'll keep an eye out for anyone matching that description. Milton will show you the way out."

MG walked up to Mr. Sandrin to start when the doors opened without a knock.

Rick closed his eyes a moment. Of course, Damon would pick this time to show up, and with a half empty bourbon bottle in his hand, no less.

"Sorry. Didn't realize I was interrupting something," Damon said, slightly intrigued and not exiting the room. He turned to MG. "Who are you?"

"Milton, but you can call me MG, Mr. Salvatore. I was just here to help; Professor Saltzman says I'm the best he's got for compulsion while Mrs. Caroline is away."

"Is that so?" Damon asked with a skeptical look at Rick and challenge to MG. "Well, what are you staring at me for? Get going, then."

MG stood upright, stared at Mr. Sandrin, and in a deep tone said, "There was an animal attack in the woods…"

Damon interrupted him. "Are you kidding me? That's the best you've got? _I_ don't even believe you, kid. Rick, you're lucky most of the people in town are idiots-no offense," he turned to Mr. Sandrin "-and an amateur vamp is enough to pull it off." Damon shoved MG out of the way. "You don't need to try that hard, but you do need to believe what you're saying. Move over and pay attention."

Damon met Mr. Sandrin's gaze and calmly stated, "There was an animal attack in the woods. It was too dark too see anything clearly. That's when you found the body. It looked exactly like a bear attack. You called the sheriff right away, but otherwise didn't have anything unusual to tell him."

Without hesitation, Mr. Sandrin repeated the altered account of what had happened last night in full story format.

Just then, Damon heard a familiar whirr in the air and spun around to catch the vervain dart midair before it him. Annoyed, he pulled a wolfsbane dart of out of his pocket and sent it flying back before sending wolf could process what had happened. The two friends flanking him had scurried off.

"Damon!" Rick protested.

"What?" Damon rebuked. "They want to play games. I'm just helping them building up that tolerance for when they get their ass kicked in a real fight."

"You can't knock out my students!"

"You're right. They're doing it _for_ you!" Damon retorted and turned to a frozen MG. "And you." Damon looked back to Rick. "Did you bother checking him?" Damon patted him down and waved a recovered loaded wolfsbane dartgun like a trophy before placing it in front of Rick. Damon shoved MG into a chair when he tried to dart off. "Class has not been dismissed."

Rick looked at MG. "I expected better from you. I'll give you a choice. You can either help us get this under control and tell me what's going on or you can spend the rest of the semester in detention."

"Yea, I'll take the detention. I'm not a snitch."

"Ok. Detention starts now." Damon snapped his neck.

"DAMON!" Rick protested

Damon took a drink from the bottle still in his hand. "Rick, do you want my help or not?"

"Damon, this is a school. You can't drink here."

Damon looked at Rick in disbelief and took another drink. "Don't tell me what I can't do in my own house, Rick! Besides, you asked for my help, remember. That is, unless you _want_ to go back to taking care of this on your own. I'm sure Caroline will be impressed."

"Leave her out of this."

"See. You gotta realize that's the root of your problem. The kids have all found out mom's left the house. Now, half of them are throwing a tantrum and _all_ of them think they can take advantage of dad. Looks to me so far like they were right. Fortunately, you've got me."

Rick was starting to doubt his decision not to call Caroline.

Damon continued, pulling out several darts from his pockets and opening the bag he'd brought. "Figured you could use more since you let Chompers and Company steal your ammo. Now, let's talk game plan. Because I'm not inclined to go running through an open field of vervain bullets, even if they are wielded by incompetent teenagers. First, the unconscious brats. Where are they?"

"Werewolves are in classroom 3. Vampires are in classroom 13. I figured it was best to keep them separate."

"Genius dedication, Sherlock," Damon retorted. "Tell me they're locked in?"

"No. I figured they're safe separated and out of the way."

Damon took an impatient breath. "Rick, I know they're schoolkids, but right now you have an _entire school_ out of control. You basically need to treat this as if it were _me_. Problem one, therefore, is once they wake up, there's nothing stopping them from running back to their squad. Problem two, you left unconscious werewolves and vampires unguarded when the school has basically started its version of a mock war. Ever thought the other gang might try and take advantage of that?"

"They're not trying to kill each other, Damon! They've just taken Death In The Dark to the next level."

"Werewolves vs vampires? You keep telling yourself that. Go secure the damn rooms."

Five minutes later, Rick came back not meeting Damon's eyes.

"Let me guess. They're all gone?"

"Not _all_ of them." Rick defended, but admitted. "You were right, okay? No need to rub it in."

Damon shrugged. "Now. Where are your witches in this? Witches aren't affected by vervain or wolfsbane. They pick sides?"

"Some. Most of them just tried to stay out of it. They're holed up in Lizzie and Josie's room."

"Let me get this straight. You've got vampires and werewolves fighting out of control and you've let the witches sideline themselves?!"

"They're just kids trying to stay out of it."

"They are _not_ just kids! They're powerful witches and your ticket out of this! You go up there and offer candy, candles or extra credit or whatever the hell they want this time to get them to agree to witch up and shut this down."


	2. Paintball fight-Supernatural style

A few hours later that night, the school halls erupted into chaos. Shrieks continued to reverberate off the walls and the air was filled with the backdrop sound of darts whizzing past. Rick, Damon and the witches were still tucked away waiting for the right time. Still, they were too spread out. They had talked about a plan beforehand and Damon motioned for two of the girls to head to one wing of the house and another two to head to the other wing. They took guns to blend into the game, but the real plan was for them to create magical obstacles that forced everyone into the same area.

Abby's team made their way to the west wing. A vampire had fired a dart that hit Abby in the neck. She pulled out it, irritated. "Imbicile! Why don't you look next time you aim before you waste a perfectly good round on someone it can't hurt! Go on, I saw a pack heading toward the library."

She motioned for her and her partner to keep moving. The next corner they rounded erupted into a putrid green smoke and knocked them both to their feet. They got up coughing to see four werewolves now lying unconscious around them. They heard the group that must have thrown it running off in the other direction. "It must have been a wolfsbane grenade," Abby called, "God, that stuff stinks. Come on, we have to keep moving!"

"_Phasmatos!"_ Abby and her partner looked at each other. Neither one of them had called it. They rounded the corner two see two witches attacking two vampires. "HEY!" Abby called. "Knock it off, Penelope! Professor Saltzman is furious. Do you guys want to keep this up or help?"

In the distraction, one of the vampires, enraged, made a leap for Penelope's neck.

"MOTIS!" All other three witches called at the same time.

"Does that answer your question!?" Penelope shrieked and fired off two rounds of vervain darts that lodged into the vampires' necks. "I ain't helping with shit! You coming or not?" She challenged, already moving away.

Her friend looked between the three of them. "I just want everyone to chill back out, but I'm not leaving her alone!" She darted off after Penelope.

Fortunately, their wing was deserted. With a look at her partner they intoned, "Vinea Motus." The wall they were facing sprang to life with leafy green vines constantly either shrinking into itself or growing outward all while moving itself forward. It was harmless, except the vines would entrap anyone it came into contact with. They stayed just ahead of the vines, using it as a shield against the other students, while also making the point it was something you wanted to avoid.

The other team, Bailey and Emilio, encountered more students. First, was a group of vampires and a pack of wolves around opposing corners that picked the same time to fire and charge at each other. They ducked instinctively, raising a protective charm around themselves till they were out of the way. Almost everyone in that scuttle was left unconscious by a dart. The one wolf that made it out ignored them as he peaked around the corner before running off with increased gusto.

The next group they encountered was too large a skirmish to ignore. Bailey set her sights on a wolf and vampire and fired off both guns respectively before ducking back down. Emilio backed her up doing the same, effectively causing enough surprise for the group to retreat. The remaining few were still aiming, but away from them.

The last group was a werewolf that had somehow managed to surprise a vampire. Except the werewolf realized too late he was out of ammo and changed tactics. Bailey screamed when she saw his eyes change and fangs come out to attack the other student. Emilio yelled out "Motus" just in time and the wolf slumped unconscious as it fell against the wall, the other vampire having also fired a wolfsbane dart during the distraction.

"Thanks, Emilio!" the vampire called and invited. "Hey, you coming?"

"Just get out of here!" Emilio encouraged.

Emilio turned to Bailey, offering his hand. "You ready?" She took it and they incanted. "Vinea Motus." A wall sprung up identical to the one Abby and her partner had set up on the other end of the school.

A short while later, Lizzie and Josie were waiting with Rick in the library. Wolves and vampires came rushing into it with shouts, flashes of smoke and more darts. Lizzie and Josie took one panicked look at each other in the chaos, before taking their hands and shouting PHASMATOS. Any of the students remaining upright in the room, immediately grabbed their heads, sinking to their knees.

Alaric shouted out over the PA system. "EVERYONE LIE DOWN YOUR WEAPONS, _**NOW!**_" He watched carefully as each of the students did so. "EVERYONE IN THIS ROOM IS IN DETENTION UNTIL THE END OF SEMESTER! ANYONE WHO MOVES OR STILL HAS A WEAPON ON THEM WHEN WE RELEASE YOU IS _**EXPELLED!**_" He heard a few more weapons drop before he nodded to Lizzie and Josie to release them. Lizzie and Josie stayed in the front of the room to recast if any more trouble erupted while Alaric and the other witches went to collect all the abandoned weapons.

"Now. Unless, you are critically injured, I want all of you to head back to your rooms immediately! If you are critically injured, stay here! Anyone found to be disobeying this is Expelled!" Rick called over the PA system; he was still furious, but he at least had calmed down.

Hearing the school suddenly go quiet and Rick over the PA system, Damon tentatively poked his head out of Rick's office where he'd gone to hide after setting everyone in motion. Seeing it all clear and taking in half the student body lying unconscious in the library, Damon came up to Rick. "Congratulations. I bet Caroline can't wait to hear about this. Hey, honey. Anything happen while I was gone?"

"Shut up, Damon. Are you going to help or not?" Rick responded.

"Alright, alright. I'm here, aren't I?" Damon responded.

"Alright. Lizzie, Josie, and the rest of the witches," Rick addressed. "I won't blame you if you want to go to bed. But, I could really use the help getting everyone in bed and making sure everyone's okay."

"Are you kidding me?" Damon and one of the witches asked together.

"I'm not staying to help heal a bunch of idiots who just tried to destroy the school!" The witch responded and marched up to bed.

Damon regarded her. She was brunette and had cut her hair short; she sort of reminded him of Bonnie. He shook his head and turned to Rick. "She's got a point, you know." Rick started to protest and Damon cut him off. "I know, I know. They're your students. You gotta make sure they're all okay. Fine." Damon heaved two of the vampires onto his shoulder, "But, then I stand by my initial point. Detention starts now and you treat these brats as if they were me. Because you should know by now, they're _all_ pissed when they wake up and then you have _Act 2_."

Damon made his way off to the classroom and Rick started searching the library. He noticed a few students with multiple darts embedded in their skin. "Lizzie, Josie, and everyone, anyone you find with more than one dart in their skin take to the infirmary."

"Did someone drop you on your head?" Damon called back. "They'll be _fine._ How many times did we take multiple hits? It's not like a double dose of _Tylenol_, Rick. They'll be a little sorer and take longer to wake up, but they're not going to die on you."

"You were older," Rick defended weakly, but knew Damon was right. He hadn't been thinking, about any of this, apparently.

Then he spotted a student lying unconscious with her dirty blonde hair tangled around her. "No," he called, disappointed. "Hope, tell me you weren't part of this." He scooped up Hope into his lap, lying limp in his arms and pulled the hair back from her face. It was then he noticed not one, but two darts in her neck that he did a double take. She was still breathing and still had a pulse, but her pulse was faint and her breathing was way shallower than it should have been. He pulled out the darts from her neck and inspected it. One was vervain; one was wolfsbane. Damon may well be right about everyone else, but Hope was unique in her tribrid status and he wasn't sure how having one sedative directed at both her systems would affect her. He tried to think back several years to when the hybrids had been around, but even they had never been hit by both vervain and wolfsbane that he knew of. He prayed and thought it would be just like a double dose to her system, but he wasn't sure.

"Whose she?" Damon asked, noting Rick's preoccupation.

"Hope Mickaelson," Rick sighed, expecting the response.

"Michaelson?! Klaus has a _daughter_?!"

"Part werewolf, part vampire, part hybrid. We can't be sure how she'll be affected. And something tells me she wasn't a part of this." Damon opened his mouth in protest, but Rick didn't given him the chance. "I know what you're thinking, but she's not Klaus. She's a good kid. And regardless, look at her. She goes to the infirmary, Damon. Make sure Abby's the one taking care of her. End of discussion."

"Professor Saltzman!" Lizzie cried out, immediately clear that something was wrong.

With a stern look at Damon, he left Hope with him to go see what was wrong. He froze when he reached her. One of the vampires, Jessica, was lying limp, covered in sweat, struggling to breathe and very pale; there was a festering bite mark on their neck and swollen purple veins oozing out from it.

"Damon, wait!" Rick demanded. "Bring Hope over here, _now_!"

"What is that?!" Lizzie cried.

"It's a werewolf bite," Damon answered, steely, while kneeling down to the ground with Hope. "And it's fatal to vampires. Still think they weren't trying to kill each other, Rick?"

"Hope has Klaus's blood in her veins," Rick told him, "Her blood holds the same cure for it his did."

"You positive about that?"

"It has to," Rick prayed and gently made a slice in Hope's wrist, holding it over the student's mouth. "Drink. It'll help. Drink up, Jessica." Rick breathed a sigh of relief when Jessica weakly licked the blood on her lips and swallowed. He watched her carefully for any signs of improvement. After a few minutes, her skin started looking better and her breathing evened out, but she was still only semi-conscious. "Girls, if you find anyone else like this, call me immediately. Damon, I'll take Hope. There are blood bags in the fridge. Grab them and you take Jessica to the infirmary, carefully."

"I know," Damon answered. He picked Jessica up, stopped by the kitchen for the blood bags and made his to the infirmary. Almost to the room, Jessica started waking up. "Mm. Whaat…happened?" She asked groggily before realizing she was being carried. She woke up quicker, just enough to jerk out of his arms before collapsing onto the floor. "What happened? Who are you?"

"Someone's been skipping their history lessons. Doesn't matter who I am," Damon replied, offering her a hand. "You should take it easy, though, and count yourself lucky. Werewolf bites normally kill vampires."

"He bit me." She said dazed, part realization, part question.

"Looks like it. Here, you're probably famished." Damon offered the girl his hand again along with a blood bag.

There was a loud bang followed by an angry curse of a vampire that had just touched vervain a few doors down. They were just past the holding classroom for the vampires. "Hey! When can _we_ eat?"

Damon turned around, annoyed. "Vampires that break the rules don't get to eat. Remember that next time."

Jessica had taken the blood bag Damon offered. This time she looked at him closer, further realization dawning on her face. "You're Damon Salvatore. What are you doing here?"

Damon snorted and addressed all of them. "I'm what happens when you and your Teen Wolf classmates decide to misbehave." Damon looked back to Jessica, helping her walk the rest of the way. "Come on. You're going feel like crap the rest of the day, but you'll be fine."

By the time they got there, Jessica was sweating. "Thanks." She didn't meet his eyes and paused. "You said werewolf bites are normally fatal. So… why aren't I dead?"

"There's only one cure for a werewolf bite. You've got the Michaelson brat to thank for that."

Jessica looked over to where Rick was fussing over a still very unconscious Hope. "_Hope's _the cure? No."

"Do you ever stop asking questions?" Damon asked. He turned to an uncertain Abby. "She'll be fine. Just make sure she gets as much to eat as she needs and she rests the rest of the day."

"Aren't I in trouble, though?"

"You better believe it." Rick turned on her. "But, I stop just short of killing my students, which is what'll happen after that bite if you don't keep your strength up. Afterwards, you get to join your classmates in detention."

* * *

AN: Abby, Emilio, Bailey, Denise, Drake and Jessica are my creations. All other students are based off the characters in the CW Legacies show.


	3. Renegade Ripper

"Drake was such a good student. I don't know what happened." Alaric shook his head as he drove towards the woods with Damon.

"I'll tell you what happened, Rick." Damon retorted. "He decided he got sick of toeing the line living on takeout and wanted to see what being a vampire was really like."

"Would it kill you to try and be a little sympathetic?"

"Yes."

Rick flexed his fingers around the wheel before gripping it tighter, exacerbated. "Know what? Forget I asked. Now, I should be able to take him out, the only problem is he'll be expecting me. So, keep quiet once we're there. You bring the element of surprise in case things go wrong."

"Teenage Ripper on the loose. What could go wrong? If I wanted you dead, I wouldn't be here."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Damon."

"Hey, you called me, remember?"

* * *

They had left Abby and Dorian in charge of the school while Damon and Rick went to take care of the rogue student. They had been searching the woods for nearly an hour with no sign of Drake. "How is there nothing here?" Rick muttered. He called out in a last ditch attempt. "Drake? I just want to help."

Damon rolled his eyes and suddenly shot his hand out, cutting Rick's forearm.

"OW! What the hell, Dam-" he yelled out before stopping himself and reflexively covering the bleeding cut with his other hand.

Damon shrugged only half apologetically and mouthed, "_Bait_."

Rick glared at Damon. Damon ignored him and a few moments later simply put up a hand, pointing to the 2 o'clock direction before darting off.

Rick took a second trying to figure out where the hell Damon had gone before understanding what he'd been trying to tell him. He hadn't been able to hear the approach, but then he saw something moving in the direction Damon had pointed.

Rick pulled out his dart gun he'd recovered, but holding it only half elevated. "Drake? If you'll come in, we'll just talk."

"You can't help me, Professor." Drake called. "See, I like it this way. And you're just holding us back from being ourselves. The other students don't realize what they're missing. And they never will with you around!"

Rick was still bleeding and heard the threat in Drake's voice. It was also closer than he'd expected. Drake hadn't been changing direction, though, and Rick fired off a dart from where he'd heard him. Drake had chosen that second to change direction and the dart missed. The next second, Drake had knocked Rick onto his back, eyes locked onto Rick's bleeding wrist. Suddenly, Damon darted out of the trees and snapped Drake's neck. Drake fell limp on top of Rick.

"Damon!" Rick yelled, rolling Drake off him. "That's a student!"

"Yea. That's a student. One who's a Ripper that was about to have you for dessert. What'd you do? Piss him off by failing his midterm?"

"Maybe I would have been able to talk to him if somebody hadn't cut me in the middle of a vampire hunt! And I told you to use vervain!"

Damon shrugged. "This was easier."

Rick sighed. "You know, I don't know if I actually missed you or not."

Damon chuckled. "You're welcome." He looked down at the kid and told Alaric. "Make sure you lock that one up for a few days. Actually_ lock_ him up, Rick. I don't care if he's a student. You know you can't have baby gloves with this."

"Yea, fine. But, You owe me a drink."

"_That_ I can do." Damon smiled and pulled out two bottles of bourbon from Rick's hunting bag.

Rick opened his mouth in protest before shaking his head and grabbing the bottle. "You know what? I don't even care right now. Why not." He took a drink. "Here's to pain in the ass friends you can count on."

Damon nodded and raised his bottle. "Here's to the school for the gifted." Damon looked up and took another drink. "Stefan, just so you know. Your idea for a school sucks."


End file.
